In Roddy Doyle's Booker Prize-winning novel Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha, an
Irish lad named Paddy rampages through the streets of Barrytown with a
pack of like-minded hooligans, playing cowboys and Indians, etching
their names in wet concrete, and setting fires. Roddy Doyle has captured
the sensations and speech patterns of preadolescents with consummate
skill, and managed to do so without resorting to sentimentality. Paddy
Clarke and his friends are not bad boys; they're just a little bit
restless. They're always taking sides, bullying each other, and secretly
wishing they didn't have to. All they want is for something--anything--to happen.
Throughout the novel, Paddy teeters on the nervous verge of adolescence.
In one scene, Paddy tries to make his little brother's hot water bottle
explode, but gives up after stomping on it just one time: "I jumped on
Sinbad's bottle. Nothing happened. I didn't do it again. Sometimes when
nothing happened it was really getting ready to happen." Paddy Clarke
senses that his world is about to change forever--and not necessarily
for the better. When he realizes that his parents' marriage is falling
apart, Paddy stays up all night listening, half-believing that his vigil
will ward off further fighting. It doesn't work, but it is sweet and sad
that he believes it might. Paddy's logic may be fuzzy, but his heart is
in the right place. --Jill Marquis |
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